Recently, we made the decision to switch to the SunPower Equinox System. This is the world’s only comprehensive solar system, with the solar panels, inverter, racking and monitoring listed as one UL product. This system boasts the new AC SunPower modules, with built-in micro inverters. Our decision to change our product line did not come lightly. This blog outlines how we went about this process and summarizes the results.

Our Process

Rayah has been using metrics in its decision-making processes for years. In general, we try to establish a series of data points (or factors), and weigh each factor towards a final decision point. This metric based approach has helped us improve lots of little things over the years, and those little things add up.

I know some solar companies will say the panels don’t matter, especially in solar leasing, but it’s just not true. Would you trust a parachute given to you by the guy at a big-box-store, or one given to you by a military paratrooper? I think you would trust the expert.

That’s how we feel about our products; we have to be the experts and truly believe in what we offer. After all, we are selling them to you, our customers, and we want to be able to deal with you honestly and with integrity. We want to be able to look you in the eye and say, “This solar panel should last 40 years,” and wholeheartedly believe it.

In order for us to have that level of confidence, we compared ten leading solar panels on performance metrics. These solar panels were Hyundai, LG, Q-Cell, Solar World, Canadian Solar, Trina, Ying Li, Axitec, Panasonic, and SunPower. These panels were compared along the following metrics:

Value: Cost vs. Customer Savings

Power Production/Efficiency

Aesthetics

Technology

Durability/Reliability

Company/Bankability

Warranty

When we began our investigation, we thought that certain panels would perform better in certain areas, and others in other areas. After our investigation, we planned to select the solar panel with the best overall score. Surprisingly, one solar panel won every single category, and in some metrics, by leaps-and-bounds. That panel was SunPower.

It has been known for years that SunPower has the most efficient panels in the world, but what we didn’t know was that they outperformed the competition in all seven metrics. The following research outlines our discoveries: